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If the overwhelming majority of you had gotten that one wrong in a multiple choice in your J school ethics course, you still would not have a degree from that university. It would have been an automatic F.

The amount of money and attention spent on that facility for such a local operation is mind-blowing. It could easily house a small multi-state network. I think just about any prospective buyer would want to know why they wouldn't want to keep that place. If it is that exposed to the water, why would anybody want it?

Anything can and will happen between now and then. Billionaires love to sit around talking about mergers and acquisitions. It is one of their favorite things to do. It makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside to announce to the world they've agreed to one.

In my market, if you combine all of the channels, you can watch live local news with an antenna from 4 a.m. until 8 p.m. M-F, except for the 3 o’clock hour. There isn’t that much news to report anywhere.

At two stations where I've worked, the bold opens were recorded 10 minutes prior to the show so retakes could be done in case something failed.

Fybush is right. He usually is. While many people are gossiping over where a netlet will land, or whether newsrooms will consolidate, or whose tower will handle the antennas, he's pointing out it is a cataclysmic event for TV. People... broadcast-only towers will no longer be required soon. Clear Channel's top suits have been lusting over this moment for decades because it means they won't have to maintain those antiquated transmitters anymore. "The people will get what they want from phones." ... We're there. Top executives are itching for a reason to grab an angle grinder, put it to a tower anchor point, and be the first to let a tower fall but live to sell commercials into the future, mostly programmatically. A lot of years ago, Clear Channel explored using AI voices at its small news/talk stations as an entry point to kick anchors to the curb, but it didn't go well with focus groups. This has been in the works since high speed internet became a thing. Perry Sook just sped up what we thought would take longer. "He's a conspiracy theorist!" ... Ok. But mark your calendars right now.

This idea of mutiny is hilarious. If there is no resistance across the industry to non-competes and people just sign them and hope for the best, there will be no resistance at all to consolidating stations. There is far more leverage by employees when presented with a non-compete: Walk away. When enough people walk away, they cannot run a station. When one company buys another with regulatory approval, there is no recourse.

There is no way I would recommend in good conscience any organization accepting the donation of an AM broadcast license of any kind. Total waste of money. Better off starting a stream.

I’ve always considered 5 letters in a network name like MSNBC to be clunky and unsayable, but this makes my brain hurt. The PR people at this country’s largest Multiple Sclerosis nonprofit need to be on the phone with the network 5 minutes ago to secure as many IP rights to this brand as they can before it gets pushed to the university lecture hall “what not to do in marketing” pile.

Why do I see so much complaining about this? This is great for local viewers. It’s a good, old-fashioned shakeup. The stations are forced to kick it up a notch and compete again. Things got stale. Even the networks are going in for the fight. NBC has sent Tom Llamas to South Florida to anchor this week. They’re getting creative again, duking it out for viewers and talking directly to the viewers. It’s not just adding some new jumpbacks or new drone vid, or sharpening the hues a bit on the news opens, or God forbid the expense of a new graphics package which would have to be adopted by all corporate stations. They’re trying new things, taking risks, in Miami. The public wins.

I’ve sampled a Gray station which was formerly heavily integrated with their network for graphics, music, promos and all. It’s been that way for decades. No mention of the network at all now. They are a top-notch station with exceptional quality. But the thorough flushing of the network feels abrupt and almost orphan, in my opinion, especially after so many years of identifying with it.

Columbus and Dayton. Dayton and Cincinnati. Pittsburgh and Wheeling/Steubenville. The former Hagerstown & DC. DC & Baltimore. There are bajillions of others.

I don’t watch anymore. They cover stories in a breathless fashion with too many mini-packs. Lester jumps to the next topic too fast. Meanwhile, CBS has a great format now. Theirs is the Huntley-Brinkley report of this day.

My, how things have changed. In 2021 and early 2022, Byron Allen was thought of by some as the next great corporate CEO in broadcasting. I once worked for a GM who ran any show of Allen’s he could get his hands on. I’d wager $0.25 that’s not the case any longer.

TEGNA owns a powerful and heritage station in my market. It will be painful to watch as this move will probably lead to production mistakes, going to black, unscripted camera swings and other discreps. The business is becoming all about the bottom line and less about what's on their screens.